Jamie Foxx's Real Name Is Not Jamie Foxx

We've All Been Lied To: Jamie Foxx's Real Name Is Not Jamie Foxx

What if I told you that a dude with one of the coolest names in Hollywood actually isn't named that at all? You might feel a little duped, right? Lied to. Mind-blown, even. (Unless you're always that interesting person at the party regaling guests with your library of random fun facts.) That's exactly how people are feeling on Twitter after finding out that Jamie Foxx's real name is not actually Jamie Foxx. It's Eric Marlon Bishop.

"Jamie Foxx's real name is Eric??? Everything is a lie," someone wrote. "We have been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amuck, and flat out deceived," tweeted another shell-shocked victim of this trickery. "I'm over here questioning my entire existence," another wrote.

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Foxx, 49, told the story behind his name-change on the Late Show with David Letterman back in 2014 — and it's actually pretty interesting. He said he did it to better his odds of getting booked in L.A. comedy clubs by fooling the guys who ran the performance signup list. After doing a great set but failing to get a callback for weeks, Foxx had a realization. "I noticed it would be like a thousand guys showed up and only three girls, but the three girls [who put their names on the signup list] would always get a spot," he explained. "So I went to the list and wrote down unisex names. Stacy Green, Tracy Brown… Jamie Foxx! And I’m the first guy called. He goes, ‘Jamie Foxx, is she here?’ I said, ‘No, brother, that’s me.’ And then I go onstage and I get a standing ovation." He added, "And that’s how my name changed."

Okay, so that explains the first name. But where did Foxx come from? The actor told Letterman his adopted last name is a tribute to trailblazing Black comedian and actor Redd Foxx (real name: John Elroy Sanford), whose bawdy humor helped him rise to fame in the '70s. Plus, Foxx liked that he was a fellow Sagittarius.

So there you have it, folks: the surprisingly good story behind The Big Lie and Jamie Foxx's earth-shattering rebranding.